Dear Jenny,

How’s it going? Are you busy with your study these days?

I’ve been back at school   41  nearly four weeks. I’m very glad to tell you that great   42  have taken place in our school this term. First of all, we’re asked to “clear our plates” when having our meals and say   43  to wasting. Some of us used to order more than what we could eat. That was a big waste of food. Now we need to    44  the food we order. We should also stop wasting in some other ways. For example, we should turn off the lights when we    45  the classroom. And our school has opened up some fields for us to learn how to grow vegetables. Each class is given a small garden and our class has decided to grow some tomatoes and beans( 豆类) in our    46  time. I think that’ll be very interesting. Maybe I’ll be able to    47  you some beans we’ve grown by ourselves next time! What’s more, we have only two classes in the afternoon    48  we have more time for after-school activities. I’m one of the traffic safety volunteers in our school. After school, we take turns to  go to the streets near our school and ask people to    49  the traffic rules.

I think we are having a different school life now!

Please write back soon and tell   50  more about your school.

Yours,

Wang Wei

1.                A．in             B．for             C．on   D．at

2.                A．changes        B．things          C．interests  D．lessons

3.                A．yes            B．hello           C．no   D．thanks

4.                A．clean          B．pay            C．cook     D．finish

5.                A．leave          B．reach          C．open D．build

6.                A．busy           B．free           C．happy    D．sad

7.                A．plant           B．buy            C．post D．lend

8.                A．because        B．when          C．before   D．so

9.                A．follow          B．make           C．break    D．think

10.               A．him           B．her            C．you   D．me

I remember that when I was in my teens，I used to refuse to follow the many “dos” and “don’ts” of my parents．For example，when I planned to sleep with my pet dog，they immediately said，”   1 “because they thought it was dangerous．This was just an example of the things I thought my parents were    2  about.       

Today，however，I am the father of a boy aged 15，and I find that I too，am pressuring my son with a lot of    3   that are hard for him．

The   4   day，I noticed that my son was wearing giant pants that could    5  three teenagers. No one should wear them．I commanded him to take them off at once .Usually，he  6  me，but this time he put his foot down．”What’s wrong with giant pants?  7  classmates wear them. And I don’t think you have the right to ask me to remove them，  8 you are my father!” said he．I    9   realized that we are now living in a society with more freedom，and that my son’s strong will on wearing giant pants was just an  10 of the generation gap(代沟) between us．Therefore，I gave in and now he is still wearing giant pants．

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant. A half century ago in the United states, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the dividing lines are still there, but they seem not clear.
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer, in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal（法律的）limits, or whether it should become more changeable, is often debated（争论）. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the dividing lines of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?
These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we seldom recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to go to  school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years – but unless we meet the truant officer（学监）, we may well think that we should go to school because of social custom and parents’ requirement rather than to the law. As adults we know “extra pay for overtime working” very well, but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes（构成）“overtime” is a matter of legal thing. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight – saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law – as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “irrelevant” probably mean?